Community comes together to celebrate 19th annual Juneteenth Festival on Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia
On a gloomy and rainy Saturday in Philadelphia, Germantown Avenue was alive for the 19th Juneteenth Festival.
"Just to be out here, celebrating and acknowledging is an amazing experience," said Saleena Temple, who attended the festival.
Vendors of all kinds filled the street, selling everything from food to Juneteenth-inspired products.
Author Johnathan Marshall was one of the vendors.
"A lot of times, we tend to not see the opportunities where we can come together and have a good time together. Most of the time in the city, you hear about negative things. So to have us out here enjoying each other, even in the midst of a rainy day, just enjoying each other is awesome," he said.
Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in Texas learned of their freedom, ending slavery in the Confederate states.
It happened more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Those who attended the festival said it's a day worth honoring.
"Our history is a rich history. It's full of awesomeness. It's something to be celebrated. It's something to be acknowledged. It's something to be carried on throughout tradition," said Temple.
"All cultures, everybody needs to know what is going on, what happened in the past. Because it's not just Black history, it's American history," said Adrienne Glenn.
The festival also included Civil War reenactors from the 3rd Regiment Infantry United States Colored Troops. Robert Houston said it's not important to celebrate the holiday, but also to educate people about its significance in history.
"A time of reflection on the history of the African Americans since emancipation today, if we lose track of that, we lose track of everything," Houston said.
"As long as we continue to talk about it, as long as we continue to engage each other and then have those conversations after a day like this, it shouldn't just be a day that we celebrate, but should be something we should be educated on before today and after today," said Marshall.
